Developing Nations Ahead of US, Europe in Smartphone, Internet Usage

Mobile phone usage in developing nations has gone from being a luxury to a necessity, enabling almost every interaction in their daily lives.  As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, both economically and socially, technology adoption remains one of the defining factors in human progress.

A report from Pew Research Center   shows that, about 54% of adults in 21 countries with developing economies are using the Internet, up from 45% in 2013.  A larger increase in smartphone usage comes from developing economies, with an upsurge of 21% in 2013 to 37% in 2015. In advanced economies, about 87% of adults use the Internet and 68% own a smartphone.

The report points much of the large usage jumps to the rapidly developing countries such as Turkey, China, Brazil and Malaysia, which are defined as having emerging economies. Turkey saw the largest jump in smartphone ownership, going up 42 percentage points to 59% between 2013 and 2015, and Malaysia jumped 34 percentage points in the same time to 65%.

Pew’s report also states that people who have better education and/or higher income are more likely to use the Internet or own a smartphone in every country with that data available. People aged 18-34 are also more likely to be connected, even reaching 100% for Internet usage in countries with advanced economies like Canada, Italy, Spain and Australia.

Most people who are connecting to the Internet or own smartphones are using social media, the report says, and a higher percentage are doing so in countries with lower Internet connectivity rates. In the Middle East and Latin America respectively, 86% and 82% of Internet users surveyed use social networking, compared to 71% in the U.S. and 65% in Europe.

Other key findings from the survey include:

• §     Smartphone ownership rates have skyrocketed in many countries since 2013. This  includes increases of over 25 percentage points among the total population in large  emerging economies such as Turkey (+42 points), Malaysia (+34), Chile (+26) and  Brazil (+26). 

• §        South Korea stands out as the country with the highest smartphone ownership rate,with 88% of respondents saying they own one. The countries with the least smartphone ownership rates are also among the poorest: Tanzania (11%), Uganda (4%) and Ethiopia (4%). 

• §     In a number of emerging and developing countries, more people have access to the internet and are also using it more frequently. In 12 emerging nations surveyed in 2014 and 2015, there were significant increases in the share of adult internet users who say they access the internet several times a day, including in Nigeria (+20 points), Ghana (+19) and China (+13).

• §       There are gender gaps on many aspects of technology use. For example, in 20 nations, men are more likely than women to use the internet. These differences are especially stark in African nations. Elsewhere, equal shares of men and women use the internet. But large gender gaps also appear on reported smartphone ownership (men are more likely to own a smartphone) in many countries, including Mexico (+16), Nigeria (+13), Kenya (+12) and Ghana (+12).